Muse: Exposure Photo Fest

In Greek mythology, the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne presided over the arts and sciences: they were called the Muses. Muse is also a collaborative photo exhibition. The title for the show is appropriate, as the thread that connects the works of the 9 artists are the human subjects that inspire them. The works themselves are otherwise very diverse, from polaroids, to boudoir tintypes, to large format digital compositions.

The opening was packed, and there was a preponderance of lanky photobug types, but I think the diversity of the works in a single room means that even the most casual gallery goer will find something to ponder. And hey, looking is free, so why not go for half an hour and see what these works evoke in you? With no intention of abasing the other artists, here's what piqued my interest most:

- Lucky I Got What I Want. A carefully arranged set of 15 or so framed photos taken in and around a wintery log cabin, Lori Andrew's piece is visual poetry. Rhythmically alternating in subject between inanimate objects and a woman, the photos almost beg the viewer to build their own narrative. Why did the woman put on a green dress? Is she waiting for something/someone while prone on the sofa? WHAT DID SHE WANT, DAMMIT?! As the artist started to explain the collection to someone, I ran away so she wouldn't ruin my own interpretation.

- The two Wallflowers. For me, Colin Way's contemporary portraits of women cleverly evoke the kind of non-perspective Virgin Mary iconography you see in Orthodox churches. While the clothes have been (I assume) digitally flattened to match the wallpaper, the skillful styling of the hair and the makeup do so to. Is there a subtle commentary here for those somewhat familiar with the history and role of religious art? I'd like to think so.

- Blacksmiths. Dan Bannister's unframed photo collection of smiths and hand crafted iron objects has a documentary quality to it.  I like the subtle smile of one smith, and the faint weariness of another... these muses punctuate the muted tones of the collection. Cradling their wares in their deeply creased and sooted hands, the visceral connection between the makers and their works soothed me in the age of Aliexpress.

- This World is a Veil (I-IV). The type of work that makes you appreciate how much more there is to photographic art than taking pictures.  I still haven't figured out what all the objects were in the shots, or how Julya Hajnoczky overlaid them.  The background human forms juxtaposed with these emerging objects left me staring at them in reflective thought..musing, if you will.

Muse runs through February 20th at Studio 122, located at 4029 8th Street in the industrial core of Calgary's South East.

The Huron Bride

Fear of the unknown is amongst the most primal of fears. Historically set in the remote forests of Upper Canada, the Huron Bride is effectively an educational piece disguised as a scary ghost play. The haunted mill backdrop superficially sets the horror tone, with suitably moody lighting (often only a single portable lamp) and sound effects. The plot is boilerplate and predictable, which will leave ghost story aficionados rolling their eyes as there is no unknown, and hence no visceral fear for the audience to experience except the odd crashing prop.

We may have seen the plot in broad strokes before, but the strength of the script is in craftily painting a picture of personal life in rural Ontario nearly two centuries ago. This is the real unknown for the average audience, for whom I'm guessing CBC's Murdoch Mysteries commercials are the primary source of period Canadiana.

With the exception of the male lead flubbing a few lines and delivering others reminiscent of the bearded priest in Little Mosque on the Prairie, the cast successfully conveyed the hardship, as well as the social tensions and conventions of the time. I might not have been scared, but was thoroughly creeped out by Leanne Govier's performance as the troubled half-Indian child Lyca. 

I somewhat enjoyed The Huron Bride, but it's more like I appreciated it. Especially given that Vertigo is offering $25 seats in the back rows, which we took advantage of. Now that your fright expectations and costs have been managed, you can go learn about but not fear the historical haunted hinterlands at Vertigo Theatre through February 23. 

The Walrus Talks: "Tomorrow"

Always a highlight of the OYR High Performance Rodeo, The Walrus Talks are 8 x 7 minute thought provoking talks from a wide range of speakers from many disciplines. Missed it?  Be sure to get your tickets early next year for this sold out event at the Jack Singer!

While the talks are not coordinated with each other in any way, they all revolve around a theme, and this year it was "Tomorrow". It is said that the sign of a great intellect is to be able to hold two equal yet opposite ideas in one's mind at the same time. Upon reflection, there were certainly dichotomous viewpoints in the Walrus Talks. At the same time, surely thought-provoking talks are meant to spur on transformative action. Here's what I gleaned from the speakers, about how we as audience members (and now you as readers) can take action to transform the future...

Neil Turok had the Herculean task of explaining to laymen the implications of moving from the digital age to the quantum age in the next 15-20 years. The benefit will be that our capacity for computation and memory will not grow exponentially, but virtually infinitely. 

A real "quantum leap".

At the other end of the scale, author Joseph Boyden warns us to pay attention to all the incremental changes we are subjected to. "Creeping normalcy" lends us to accepting situations we would have found intolerable if presented to us all at once (e.g. the Canadian government's singular focus on being a petro-state).

Ad guru Terry O'Reilly makes us aware of how The Internet of Things is incrementally becoming a reality: there are billions of two-way devices (including cars) right now that not only tell you information, but also send it back to The Mothership. Some of this is about better customer service, but nefarious uses are all too easy to imagine as well.

Ace app developer Michael Sikorsky is more sanguine, sure that innovations will eliminate the need for people to have singular focus on their handheld devices (e.g. the awkward silence at dinner tables everywhere these days as people type away). Throughout history, as devices improve in scale and speed, they allow us to communicate more easily.

Dual-citizen Diane Francis explained that the US is our natural partner, with whom we should forge an ever closer union to fend off foreign interests.  The world won't let us sit on our under exploited natural resources for much longer. We must exploit them before others do.

Survivorman Les Stroud in contrast contended that we are in a state of environmental slavery, and it will be as unethical to our grandchildren as human servitude is today. A palpable shudder emanated from the audience as he challenged us to take our garbage cans away for a month. As he explained that everyone leaving their packaging at the store counter would cause businesses to transform their distribution model, a lot of LED bulbs went off in people's heads. 

The amazing Shad closed with free versed...
The future is uncertain, and we fear what we don't know. Don't be afraid to act though: it's less important that we take the right actions, and more important that we know they come from a pure place. "Intelligence is not a virtue...I never regret the stupid things I've done, but I do regret the cowardly and selfish things that I've done."

Did the Walrus talks give me a definitive answer about the future? No, but I am less afraid to act.

Craigslist Cantata: Alberta Theatre Projects

In music, a sonata is a standard framework where you start with a theme, then wander off, then return to the theme for closure (the so-called "ABA" pattern). Craigslist, albeit a Cantata, opens with the theme of Missed Connections, where we can laugh at the foibles and insecurities people have, as laid bare in the classifieds. For sure, there are plenty of laughs to be had as the actors sing the ads verbatim, but with much affectation and clever prop use. 

We see the fore lorn ad writers from a comedic distance, but things change as the Cantata wanders into the B theme of Items Free To A Good Home. Here we continue to laugh, but there is also genuine pathos for the real people behind the odd ads. Whether they are letting go of many hats from their beloved ex-cat, or are cathartically dumping their adolescent stuffed penguin collection, Craigslist is a window into their personal drama. 

Mustering the courage to publicly rid oneself of objects stuck in the past is potentially a deep subject to explore, even comedically. This was perhaps a missed opportunity. The Cantata inevitably draws back, trying to get closure in the form of a saccharine but very catchy and well sung Missed Connections ensemble piece. 

If Rent's "525,600 Minutes" pulled at your heart strings, so will Craigslist Cantata's 80 minutes songbook. For those who want a High Performance Rodeo show to challenge them, check your intellect at the door and enjoy a good laugh with everyone else. The oddness of real life virtually guarantees it.

Craigslist Cantata runs through February 1st at the Martha Cohen Theatre as part of One Yellow Rabbit's High Performance Rodeo.

The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra's Tweet Seats

When I here the word "tonic", I think of gin rather than the reference pitch of a piece of music. I'm guessing I'm not the only one, so it's nice that the CPO has started a designated balcony section called "Tweet Seats". This is where smartphone addicts like me can be edified by CPO staff over Twitter during the concert. The Tweet Seat pilot is taking place during the CPO Rush Hour series, which are 1(ish) hour after-work concerts, each one built around a theme. Last night, it was Beethoven and his Viennese contemporaries.

Katherine Duncan (host of CBC Radio's Key of A) talked at length with conductor David Lockington before and between pieces, so the whole audience learned about the historical context of the music, such as rivalries, influences, and Napoleonic occupation. The audience also learned about the challenges the concerto soloists face (Clarinet:Steve Amsel, Trumpet: Adam Zinatelli).

In the Tweet Seats though, we were further enriched during the music by @CPORush (Artistic Director Heather Slater for this concert).  What I appreciated most were the tweets telling us the structure of the piece, and what part was coming up, what to listen for, how the parts relate, etc. Counterintuitively, using my phone made me pay more attention to the music. My mind has been known to drift off a bit at concerts previously...

Thankfully, there were relatively few navel-gazing tweets from the people in the Tweet Seats, mostly kudos for the soloists, and questions about the music, which were prompt answered. The back and forth effectively demystified Beethoven for me, and I hope they make Tweet Seats a permanent fixture.

The next concert in the CPO Rush Hour series is Friday, May 30, 2014, with music from Stanley Kubrick's classic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey. If I'm lucky, they'll also demystify the meaning behind the giant in utero fetus floating above Earth.

GOB Squad's Super Night Shot

The GOB Squad, an English-German artist collective, is in town for One Yellow Rabbit's High Performance Rodeo. Their modus operandi is filming everyday people on the street to glean wisdom about life. On Wednesday night, they did a did a unique show at the Legion No.1 in downtown Calgary. Like the show, this summary will be quick and unpolished...since what you probably want to know is if you should see their other show this weekend, called "Kitchen".

Super Night Shot started filming literally an hour before the screening, as one long continuous synchronized shot on four handicams. The plot is that one videographer, Simon Will, should do something heroic in downtown core, then get kissed by a stranger for his heroism. Other three videographers do PR (including crashing Milestone's on 8th), scope out the perfect kiss site (lurking in alleys and parkades), and recruit a kisser (hard, even wearing gold lamé).

Alas, Simon finds it tough to be heroic in Calgary. He encounters a woman who needs help finding someone to help raise her children.  Perhaps too tall a task. He stops people from jaywalking. Perhaps too small a feat. A passer-by reflects on his offer to do something for her... she draws a blank and says apologetically "sorry, I guess we're pretty content here".

While the camera is primarily focused on the Gob Squad and the strangers on the street, the final scene is them entering the Legion to our own applause. While he might not necessarily earn it through heroism tonight, we were rooting for him to get that kiss, and he did. The plot is a cliché, but what motivates our excitement for it is that the players and the audience are one that night. The wisdom I gleaned was that whether contently walking down the street, having a drink at Milestone's, or watching a film at the Legion, the ordinary can be made extraordinary simply through our will to actively engage.  If GOB's artists engage the audience just as much during the Kitchen show, you shouldn't miss it.

First Post!

I'm starting up a blog, because sometimes I just can't fit all my thoughts into 140 characters on Twitter, and you can't post your thoughts about something ephemeral like a play on Yelp.  Most posts here will be about goings on in Calgary and as far as I care to drive. Happy reading!